A SEAL's Pleasure. Tawny Weber

      Good thing for him he wanted neither.

      “So?” Tessa said, wetting her bottom lip with her tongue and sending a shaft of passion spiking through his system. “What do you say? Want to play?”

      He leaned back on his heels, considering her face. It was a study in seduction. The full, pouting lips, the sweep of her lashes. But he could see the calculation in the blue depths of her eyes, there beneath the desire.

      And in a flash as powerful as his spiking desire, he realized what she was doing.

      She wanted to fan this heat, accelerate it so it blew hot, fast and furious. She figured the faster it blew up, the quicker it blew out, the sooner it’d be over. Then she’d turn on those sexy heels of hers and walk away without a glance.

      Without giving him another thought.

      Gabriel totally understood her strategy. He even admired it.

      But he’d be damned if he was going to make it easy for her.

      He didn’t know why.

      It was stupid to worry about dragging out this thing between them. It was obviously hot enough to set off fire alarms already. Could it really get any hotter? Any wilder?

      And then there was his personal policy to live for the moment. Today was the only day he was guaranteed to have, so today was to be lived to the fullest.

      But whatever this was between them, and he had no idea what it might be, Gabriel was damned if it was going to be finished until he was ready.

      It might take weeks.

      Maybe months.

      He might be finished after one orgasm or it could be dozens.

      But hey, it didn’t matter if it was on the battlefield, behind covert cover or between the sheets.

      He was a man used to giving his all.

      And when it was done, she might walk away.

      But she’d never forget him.

      He’d make damned sure of that.

      It was time to put Operation Romance into play.

      With that in mind, Gabriel took Tessa’s hand, and in a move he’d never made before but felt completely natural, he lifted it to his lips.

      “What are you doing?”

      Underneath the surprise, he heard the nerves dancing there, just beneath the surface. And he reveled in them.

      He’d thrown her off.

      Which was a great first step.

      “Doing? I’m seducing you,” he said quietly, taking his time as he slid his hands through the long sweep of her hair, enjoying the silky thickness weighing against his fingers. “Since you’ve finally admitted this attraction we’ve got going on here, I figure it’s time to see how far we can push it. How long we can play it out.”

      “Oh, I’ll bet you’re good for at least a few long, hard hours,” she said in a husky tone, her fingers tiptoeing up his chest, leaving hot little trails wherever they touched.

      “Oh, yeah, I could keep you panting and wet for hours and hours,” he promised, leaning closer as if to kiss her. At the last second, he shifted so his lips brushed the softest whisper over her silken cheek. “But I was thinking we could do better than that.”

      Her breath hitched a little; her eyes blurred with pleasure. Her fingers were kneading his chest, nails digging in gently in a sexy rhythm that promised a superb sense of timing.

      For a second, Gabriel wanted to say to hell with dragging this out. It wasn’t ego reminding him that he’d never had a woman who didn’t want more when they were done. The simple truth was that he was damned good at sex.

      The problem was, so was Tessa. He was sure of it. And she was a woman with exquisite control. He had no doubt that while she might, if forced, admit as she left his bed that it’d been the best sex of her life, she’d still leave.

      He had to hook her good and solid first, so she’d be there until he’d had his fill.

      “See, real seduction is an art,” he continued, making it up as he spoke. “There’s a smooth buildup, layers of needs and awareness. There’s discovery, finding out if we have the same turn-ons, exploring each other’s secret delights.”

      Her eyes sharpened to a blue so deep it was almost purple, those full lips parted just a little as if ready for him to dive in. Damn, she was intoxicating.

      He was halfway there, his mouth craving the taste of hers, before he yanked himself back.

      To hide his slip, he rubbed his thumb over the soft cushion of her bottom lip instead.

      “All of that should come first, don’t you think?” he said with his most charming smile.

      Watching the play of emotions flash through Tessa’s eyes, excitement melding with fear, worry with passion, he gave himself a mental pat on the back.

      Damned if this wasn’t going to beat the hell out of fast and furious.

      Figuring he deserved a little reward for outmaneuvering her, Gabriel pulled Tessa closer. Pleasure pounded through him as the delicious curves of her body aligned tightly against his hard planes.

      He knew his limits, knew exactly how far he could push this desire before he hit the point of no return.

      Now to find out hers.

       4

      HER BODY WAS on fire.

      Hot, molten pleasure radiated out from every point it came into contact with the deliciously hard planes of Romeo’s body. He towered over her, his eyes as dark as the sky above as he stared down at her. His fingers were a whisper as they skimmed over her cheek before sliding into her hair, rubbing a strand between them before tucking it behind her ear.

      With a focus that held incredible promise for things to come, he leaned closer.

      Tessa’s heart clenched, anticipation coiling tight around desire as she waited to see what he would do. She’d been secretly dreaming about his lips for months. Wondering what they’d feel like. Would he be forceful and take her mouth? Or would he gently seduce?

      Their eyes locked on each other’s, Gabriel’s smile flashed for just a second. The closer he came, the more excited she got. At the last second, before he reached her lips, he changed direction. Tessa shivered as his breath whispered over her ear a heartbeat before his lips.

      Oh. As his mouth brushed her flesh, anticipation uncoiled, sending that desire shooting through her system.

      Holy screaming orgasms.

      With one hand pressed to the small of her back and the other curled into her hair and just the sweetest brush of his mouth, Romeo sent her from intrigued and cautious to wet and needy. She sank her fingers into his biceps, delighting in the sensations.

      Tessa was a woman exquisitely in tune with her own body, brilliantly aware of the nuances that played out between women and men and fiercely sensitive to the potentially emotional missteps.

      Which, she remembered as a knot of panic balled in her belly, at odds with the feeling of throbbing desire, was why she’d determined so many months ago that Romeo was off-limits.

      Because he was dangerous on so very many levels.

      She gave an involuntary hum as his teeth nipped at her earlobe, the sharp pleasure shooting through her body like a wake-up message to her erogenous zones.

      Tessa was also a woman of fierce pride.

      She’d come out here to seduce Romeo for a very good reason.

      And just because it was a mistake—probably a huge mistake—didn’t mean those reasons